US says Russia and Ukraine agree on safety of shipping in Black Sea

Washington/Moscow/Kyiv: The United States said on Tuesday it has reached separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other's energy facilities.

The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that Washington sees a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine.

Russia, however, said it could not trust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and it could therefore only sign a Black Sea deal if Washington issued an "order" to him to respect it.

"We will need clear guarantees. And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelenskyy and his team to do one thing and not the other," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments.

It was not immediately clear whether Moscow's demand risked derailing the deal. Zelenskyy has previously said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, is not to be trusted over peace moves.

Ukraine's Defence Minister said Kyiv had agreed to both a maritime ceasefire and a pause by Russia and Ukraine in attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.

Seeking to fulfil a pledge by President Donald Trump to end the war quickly, the US originally proposed a full 30-day ceasefire - to which Ukraine agreed in principle on March 11 - as a step towards peace talks.

But the Americans held separate talks in Saudi Arabia with Russia and Ukraine this week to discuss more limited ceasefires on energy and at sea, after Putin responded to the wider truce plan with a long list of conditions and questions.